Forever Flamenco Returns…

Well once again you have the opportunity of experiencing one of the true treats of L.A.

Sunday, May 22 – Forever Flamenco.

Why do I keep urging you to get down to the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood and partake in this monthly series?

What makes Flamenco so special, you ask?

Well, all right, since you asked –

Gabriel Osuna-Forever Flamenco-The Fountain

Gabriel Osuna (Courtesy of The Fountain)

It is the nature of all life to evolve. From the nascent state we develop until the fullness of our potential is obtained or the natural limitations of our species reached. One can disagree and debate the question of potential-limitation, but not that the ultimate stage bears slight similitude to that of the inception stage.

In a fashion, the babe is lost to the child, the child to the youth, the youth to the adult.

It is true of art forms that they evolve from a primal form, developing intellectual dimensions artistic frameworks. The loss of a certain primal intensity is payment for that progression.

Yeah, that’s a mouthful, I know, so let ‘s put forth some illustrations.

Pliny the Elder reports that Zeuxis, a Greek painter of the 5th century B.C.E., would have guests try to eat the grapes painted on his canvases. And that Parrhasios, a fellow artist of Zeuxis, invited him to view a new work covered over by a lace curtain. When Zeuxis went to lift the lace curtain he found it was part of the painting.

The 13th century Italian artist Giotto liked to paint little flies on his works then watch patrons try to shoo them.

In 1849 twenty to thirty thousand rioting New Yorkers confronted the National Guard troops called up to re-establish order resulting in more than thirty deaths. The cause of their uprising? A production of Shakespeare.

When J. M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World premiered it too caused a riot, though not nearly as bloody.

My passion for theatre knows no bounds, but sadly, I’m reduced to imagining what the state of catharsis must have been like to reduce an ancient Greek audience to a sobbing mass incapable of speech, or what passion could be played upon to plunge me into a frenzy of rioting.

When the raw throbbing notes of jazz was first heard it threw some into wild paroxysms. Decent women fainted.

The same can be said of rock and roll and even rap.

Once, not very long ago, the experience of rap was felt by some as less “music” than throbbing hammer blows of anger, rage and revolt.

Now, Ice-T does pamper commercials and you can hear “Fuck the Police” as muzak while waiting in line to make a deposit at Bank of America.

Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 The Great Train Robbery, one of the first film “works” to employ editing in the telling of its story, concludes with one of the robbers on the screen pointing his gun at the audience and firing.

When first shown, members of the audience dived under their seats.

Film, the youngest of arts, has all but lost that quality that permitted those engaging in it to be engulfed by its artifact, transported by its manufactured illusion.

The exception that tests the rule here being Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, a 2 hour, 6 minute Christian stuff film with only 16 torture free minutes of which 2 minutes were taken up by the resurrection and none to the tenets of Jesus’ teaching. ♥

Whatever forms the creative imperative embodies, the accretion of artistry infuses accessibilty but defuses the ascendancy of the incipient urging behind the creative act.

Timo Nuñez- Forever Flamenco-The Fountain

Timo Nuñez (Courtesy of The Fountain)

Art, like the Titan Antaeus is robbed of its strength when removed from the soil that is its mother.

Flamenco, I find, still has a fast grip to the dark and tragic history, the pain and passion that was the life breath of the cante jondo, the traditional “deep song.”

In the sound of Flamenco, the fury of its dance, we have echoes from the dark corners of the human soul as profound today as they were three centuries ago.

Nowhere will the sorrow and joy of the human condition find expression with more sublime defiance than in the music and dance of flamenco.

Deborah Lawlor, for one Sunday every month, has lured world class talent to a small corner of Hollywood with the Forever Flamenco series at The Fountain Theatre.

Scheduled to appear at the next performance on Sunday May 22nd at 8:30: Gabriel Osuna will be the evening’s guitarist. Osuna plays with garra, meaning “guts” or “vitality.” Evidence of this is found if you examine his fingers which he coats in Super Glue to give the tips added protection.

Mateo Amper will be at the piano and Gerardo Morales is the featured percussionist as well as the evening’s director.

If these three musicians were matched in a battle of the bands with any philharmonic orchestra in the country, when it was over, it wouldn’t be the ones in tuxes wearing the laurels.

Dancer Timo Nuñez is a melding of grace and raw power who is stunning to watch.

Singer Jesus Montoya is another familiar face in the series, who fills every note he sings with such emotional power it could make bricks weep.

Marina Valiente (pictured above) will be making her debut at the Fountain. I am confident it will be a debut very worth seeing.

THE NEXT PERFORMANCE OF FOREVER FLAMENCO SERIES:

SUNDAY MAY 22nd at 8:00 PM

AT
THE FOUNTAIN THEATRE
5060 Fountain Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 663-1525

www.thefountaintheatre.com

WITH GUEST ARTIST & DANCER
MARINA VALIENTE & TIMO NUÑEZ

CANTAOR:
JESUS MONTOYA

GUITARIST:
Gabriel Osuna

PIANO:
MATEO AMPER

DIRECTOR/PERCUSSION/GUITARIST:
GERARDO MORALES

I know, I said it before. Well guess what? I’m saying it again: Forever Flamenco – The best tickets in LA. Click

(NOTE: Marina Valiente in Featured Photo – Photo by Paco Sánchez, Courtesy of The Fountain Theatre)

♥ Gibson made the film according to his statements because “We could all use a little more love, faith, hope and forgiveness.” His subsequent actions put the lie to that hypothesis. I’m afraid it’ll take deeper minds than mine to explain the global appeal of this one.

Written by

An award-winning L.A. playwright and rabble-rouser of note who has hoisted glasses with Orson Welles, been arrested on three continents and once beat up Charlie Manson. His first play, "Among the Vipers" was a semi-finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition and was featured in the Carnegie-Mellon Showcase of New Plays. It was produced at the NPT Theater in Ashland, Oregon and Los Angeles’ celebrated Odyssey Ensemble Theatre. His following play, “The Little Boy Who Loved Monsters” was produced at The Hollywood Actors Theater, where he earned praise from the Los Angeles Times for his “…inordinately creative writing.” The play went on to numerous other productions including Berlin’s The Black Theatre under the direction of Rainer Fassbinder who wrote in his program notes of Kearney, “He is a skilled playwright, but more importantly he is a dangerous one.” Ernest Kearney has worked as literary manager or as dramaturge for among others The Hudson Theater Guild, Nova Diem and the Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, where he still serves on the play selection committee. He has been the recipient of two Dramalogue Awards and a finalist or semi-finalist, three times, in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. His work has been performed by Michael Dunn, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jack Colvin and Billy Bob Thornton, and to date, either as playwright or director, he has upwards of a hundred and thirty productions under his belt, including a few at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater as puppeteer. Kearney remains focused on his writing, as well as living happily ever after with his lovely wife Marlene. His stage reviews and social essays can be found at TheTVolution.com and workingauthor.com. Follow him on Facebook.

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